


They Have a Word For This

by WinnerEveryTime



Category: Bill & Ted (Movies)
Genre: Actually requited crush, Angst, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Pining, Podfic Welcome, Slow Burn, Unrequited Crush, tags will be added as needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 17:47:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19114660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinnerEveryTime/pseuds/WinnerEveryTime
Summary: Bill becomes hypersensitive to his feelings about Ted. This leads to him thinking about the nature of these feelings, not only for his best friend but for males in general. He finds himself coming up short on an answer he likes.





	1. Chapter 1

It started like this: A tiny comment flew by word of mouth to Bill’s ear and got stuck there in between thoughts of missing a fork on his lunch tray and wondering whether he should bother to do tonights homework early after school. An inconspicuous comment, really. At the next table sat Pamela Aynes, who looked at her friend Trinity and said exactly what was on her mind.

 

“Hey, you know the guy next to you?” Pamala said quietly to Trinity, mindful of how close they were to the subject in question. But she still managed to snag Bill’s attention. “I wonder why he’s alone today.”

 

“Yeah, isn’t he always with Ted Logan?” Trinity said conspiratorially. Bill picked at the bread bun on his burger. It doesn’t feel good to be talked about.

 

“Speaking of Bill and Ted...they’re really close. Like, really close. Do you think he’s...?” Pamela looked up at Trinity from her notebook with the pencil still poised in her hand. Bill grit his teeth.

 

“Do you think they’re...?” The girls shared a moment of silence. Bill stood up from the bench abruptly and decided he would need that fork after all.

 

Bill doesn’t reach higher than Ted’s nose. He noticed this while standing next to him in the line to the cash register at a Seven Eleven. Even with his head bowed, long, dark brown hair spilling over like a curtain, Ted was still taller. Bill’s gaze traveled from his head to his hands. Ted was looking at the ingredient label on his Twix bar. The golden candy bar looked extra small in his large, pink palm. Bill stared at his hand, unable to take his eyes away.

 

Ted looked up from the bar at Bill. Slowly he donned a small smile.

 

“Hey.” He said. Bill broke from his trance and his eyes snapped up to Ted’s. His warm smile. Some of that warmth seemed to creep into Bill’s own cheeks, though he didn’t even know why. He felt like a boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

 

“...Hey.” Bill stammered out weakly and turned his head resolutely forward. Ted smiled and looked forward as well, whistling quietly. Bill found he quite liked the tune. It wasn’t like any song he’d heard before, because he didn’t usually listen to songs that didn’t include an electric guitar being shredded or some sick baseline. The song wasn’t slow, but mid tempo, and it was reminiscent of something summery. Something you could easily strum an acoustic guitar too.

 

Before he knew it they were walking down the sidewalk and Ted was still humming the tune. When Ted stopped everything got a little duller. Though it didn’t completely lose its colour with him still in sight.


	2. Chapter 2

The bass from the speakers practically sent thumping waves through the air that Bill rose and fell on while he danced. A garage is the best place to hold such a ceremony in. Even without Ted there, Bill could have fun. Even though his head seemed to relate everything back to Ted, Bill was undoubtedly his own person.

 

What was it that his history teacher said back in freshman year? All roads lead to Rome? Bill smiled and jumped off the couch, then began to shuffle dance when he recovered his balance. He played the imaginary drums to the fast paced beat of the New Order song.

 

All roads lead to Rome. Bill imagined that he was really in a concert. White strobe light in a black stadium. The people were lit in greys and whites. All around Bill they danced.

 

Bill knew he would turn around and find Ted there too. Dancing like no one was watching. Watching the way he smiled, lost in the song like he usually would be. Hands in the air. He would open his almond shaped eyes and spot Bill.

 

Now the chorus echoes through the speakers and Bill stares up at the ceiling, catching his breath. In his fantasy, he approaches Ted as he sways in the crowd. The strobe light switches to a seeker light and roves around the stadium.

 

Bill gets closer, and closer to Ted. Suddenly his arms are over Ted’s shoulders, like they should have always been there, and they just dance. Not in a rush to dance out the feelings. Bizarre Love Triangle is not a slow song...but it can be slow danced to.

 

The song ended and Bill rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms, then dragged them down his cheeks and flattened his palms over his face with a long and drawn out groan.

 

Bill has a skateboard. Correction; Bill and Ted share a skateboard that Bill bought. Ted doesn’t have enough money on his own and his dad is a hardass who doesn’t believe teenage boys should be skateboard riding hooligans, though they _are_ and they _should_.

 

The wheels on the board scratch over the hard surface of the slope. Bill is watching him slide up and down the sides of the large, shaped depression in the ground. The only skateboard park in town.

 

Even with the chilly afternoon air, Bill is warm inside. Ted zooms up the slope towards Bill all of a sudden at breakneck speed. Frozen in one spot, Bill’s eyes widened. But Ted didn’t come crashing into Bill. His head came shooting up over the ledge until he was rising up into the air slightly.

 

An exhilarated grin adorned Ted’s face and his long hair was everywhere. Just as quickly as he came he slid back down. Bill crawled on his hands and feet and peered over the edge to watch Ted go zooming in another direction. His heart thumped annoyingly in his chest.

 

Ted grew tired over time so he sat down with his legs dangling over the edge. He sweats easily, so his forehead was soaked and his bangs pushed back, hair tucked around his ears. It would be so helpful if Bill had a hair tie in this moment. Bill himself lay on his back with his legs over the edge and his hands behind his head.

 

Ted peeled his shirt off. Likely because it would be sweaty and uncomfortable. But Bill wished he kept it on. From here he could see the line of his spine and the firmness of his back muscles. It brought back those uncomfortable feelings Bill had been swallowing down like un-chewed food for the past week.

 

 _“Do you think he’s...?”_ Bill heard in his head. _“Do you think they’re...?”_ This time, it wasn’t Ted that triggered the racing heart. Anxiety did that for him. He couldn’t help it if he looked at Ted sometimes. Couldn’t control himself. Not around Ted. And maybe not around other guys either...

 

Before his thoughts spiralled deeper into a pit of despair, Bill sat up and grabbed the skateboard.

 

“C’mon.” He said to Ted, who followed silently. After a couple steps Bill dropped the skateboard on the ground and stepped on it. He kicked off and started rolling. This was the first time Bill rode away from Ted, because the other couldn’t catch up with him and his wheels. Guiltily, Bill was glad Ted wasn’t around to see him cry.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bitch I’m back. By popular demand. *Formation by Beyoncé plays* and now you can see why this long ass bitch took me so long to deliver to y’all. I had to birth this shit. I had to wait 9 months. I had to go to prenatal appointments for this shit. I have to pay child support for this shit.

The princesses know that things are tense between Bill and Ted. And why would they not?  Wyld Stallyns practices together every day save for the weekends. For months Joanna and Elizabeth raised money by way of working and through community donations, now the two women can afford to rent an insanely cheap apartment.

 

It’s not the best, it’s got one room for the two of them, there’s three people living there, and it’s in such a shady part of town that Bill and Ted sometimes walk the girls home from work just to have an extra set of eyes out because they don’t always finish at the same time and they work in different areas of town.

 

But it’s perfect for them at the moment. Joanna and Elisabeth have never had much despite being princesses. They ate well and slept much and barely worked. But not as thought they reaped all the benefits of being a noble. Joanna once remarked that she had never felt as much of her own person back then as she does now. In losing their status, the girls gained something priceless. Their independence.

 

So the girls are smart. Maybe not literate, but smart. They knew that Bill and Ted weren’t on good terms before Bill and Ted were knew they weren’t on good terms.

 

“Thou speak less of good Theodore and more of musicians. Prithee, hath the man upset you?” Elizabeth asked politely while she and Bill walked home from her job.

 

“What? No.” Bill said, caught unaware. He had been thinking, or more accurately _brooding_ , to himself. Elizabeth smiled, and it almost looked conniving, but she’s way too sweet for that.

 

“If what thou sayest be true, then wouldst thou mind bringing him over to Joanna and I’s apartment?” Said Elizabeth with a note of hope. Bill thought about it for a moment. Longer than he usually would have. Ted truly hadn’t done anything wrong, that wasn’t a lie. So why was Bill reluctant to say yes?

 

“Sure. I don’t have any work tonight.” Bill concluded. Elizabeth smiled and this time it was undeniably sly.

 

Talking to Ted was hard. Getting him to Joanna and Elizabeth’s was harder. The two were silent the whole way there. And yet, none of it was Ted’s fault. Elizabeth opened the door with a smile on her face when Ted knocked. Not only a few months ago the four of them had been in their respective relationships together. Now they’re all broken up, and yet, they’re closer than ever.

 “Why’d you invite us over?” Bill asked and followed Elizabeth into the main room where a couch and an old television stood. On the table were bottles of colourful nail polish as well as a clear base and finishing coat.

 

“Elizabeth and I learned about this thing called a ‘movie night’ from my friend Warren who works with me.” Said Joanna from the doorway to her and Elizabeth’s bedroom. Her arms were crossed and she was leaning on the door frame.

 

“Yes, exactly. And we thought thou might like to join us in painting our nails.” Said Elizabeth cheerfully. Bill broke into peals of laughter at that.

 

“Guys don’t wear nail polish.” He said with a humoured smile. Ted looked at him strangely, one eyebrow raised.

 

“Actually, we do.” He said confidently to Elizabeth. Utterly shocked, Bill’s eyes widened.

 

“What? No we don’t Ted!”

“Yeah, we do.”

“We aren’t...we aren’t...”

 

“Lovely.” Elizabeth said, delighted, and took each of their hands in hers. The lady dragged them to a beaten up old couch made out of a material as stiff as cardboard and sat them down either side of her. That was when she stood up and ordered them to shove up into one side of the couch. Bill grumbled and Ted was silent, looking anywhere but Bill as they were forced to sit outer thigh to outer thigh.

 

At some point Joanna had obviously slipped away and when she came back she came with a clear bowl containing some sort of goopy greenish mess and a few thick makeup brushes in her hand. The boys, momentarily confused, slowly smiled.

 

“Aww, Yeah! You brought guacamole?” Ted said enthusiastically. Bill rubbed his hands together with a smile. Normally they would have done an air guitar.

 

“Not guacamole, no. I believe it’s called a face mask.” Joanna said, sitting down on the floor with the bowl in her lap. The boys frowned and Elizabeth followed her to the floor, then the boys followed Elizabeth. Now with them all sitting on the carpet, Elizabeth grabbed the television remote and looked at it thoughtfully.

 

“Warren hath informed thy self that I am to ‘press the circular red button’ to turn on the T.V.” She said aloud and pressed the button. Exactly as she said, the television flickered to life with the news playing on the screen.

 

“Hey, Liz. Pass me the remote.” Ted asked, reaching his hand out for it. Elizabeth stared at him dumbly.

 

“Is thou speaking to me?” She asked.

“Yeah. Can I have the remote?”

“Oh! Yes.” Elizabeth smiled, slightly embarrassed, and handed him the remote.

 

Ted flipped through the channels until he stopped on a comedy. He set the remote down and looked back at the girls to explain what it is, but they were looking back at him and Bill with a most intense and mischievous look upon their faces. Both girl’s eyes sparkled slightly. Joanna handed Ted a brush and he looked at it in confusion as she handed one to Bill as well.

 

“We borrowed most of these, so don’t ruin them, but Elizabeth and I just thought we might... _bond_ with you and Bill. Learn more about the modern world?” She explained. “The face mask. You paint it on with one of these brushes and then wait for period of time. I have a watch on my wrist, actually.” Joanna smiled and when she turned her wrist to face the boys the shiny face of a chunky black wristwatch appeared reading the time digitally.

 

“Okay, I was lenient on the possibility of nail polish- but face masks too? Babes, if you want to hang out with us totally chill dudes, why can’t we do something a little less...girly?” Bill complained.

 

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and shoved the bowl in Bill’s lap. She pulled the headband off of her own head and held Bill’s face still as he struggled. She managed to slip the thin headband over his forehead and up enough to push back his blond curls. Finally free of her invasive hands in his face Bill blinked hard and pouted. Somewhere behind him was a distinctly masculine voice giggling.

 

Before Bill could complain again, Elizabeth dipped the brush in the bowl and scooped up the contents on to the bristles. Then she smeared it on his left cheek and began to paint it over his skin, leaving no pink visible under that patch. Bill grimaced and took the brush from her hand and begrudgingly started painting the mask on himself, well aware he wouldn’t be getting a say in this.

 

Now Elizabeth set her sights on Ted, who was lying with his back against the sofa watching the movie. When she approached him on her hands and knees he looked over at her with wide eyes. She rolled herself up into a sitting position and reached around Bill’s back to snatch the bowl out of his hands. Bill glared at her over his shoulder and scooted over to dip into the bowl.

 

Gently Elizabeth spread the paste across Ted’s cheek and down his jawbone. Leaning over Elizabeth’s shoulder gave Bill a chance to rest against his weight and take his time finding amusement in his friend being forced to engage in feminine beauty practices.

 

But then Ted looked over with his soft brown eyes and only his cheek and jaw covered, calm, the brush gliding over his skin, and suddenly Ted was the only one in the room until he looked away again. The moment Ted’s eyes left his, Bill became aware of how dry his throat had gotten accompanying an annoying hot flush in his cheeks that wouldn’t go away.

 

Bill looked over his shoulder at Joanna. She was watching the show and trying not to laugh because the mask on her skin was as dry and tight as Bill’s own. Joanna noticed him looking at her and turned her head to face him.

 

“Bill, I have been wondering this for many a night. How long have you and Theodore been friends?” She asked, relaxing her back on to the edge of the sofa. Bill lit up at the question.

 

“Since we were kids! We’ve always been in the same schools.” Said Bill.

 

“Truly? You are eighteen years of age, I believe? As are Elizabeth and I. For a friendship to last so long...Elizabeth and I mostly stuck together because we’re sisters. Perhaps it is only found in females, but typically we do not stick together unless we are related.” Joanna said with a smile.

 

“Well it isn’t that easy.” Bill admitted quietly. Joanna nodded sympathetically and rose up to her feet, gesturing with a come hither motion. Bill followed her from behind into the bathroom where she flicked on the yellowish light and stood in front of the sink.

 

“It would be nothing short of a lie to say it is easy to get along with my sister as often as we are around one another. At times I feel as though she does barely anything from sunrise to sundown.” Joanna admitted, pulling back her strawberry blond locks with a pink scrunchy. Bill nodded in agreement and sat down on the closed toilet seat.

 

“I mean I don’t really get that way about Ted. It’s usually my little brother that pisses me off. I get the feeling he thinks _I_ don’t do anything.” Bill said, watching her soak her hands in water and begin to work the mask off of her face in circular motions. ”Ted doesn’t really make me _mad_.” He said.

 

“Then why do I sense that he is bothering you?” Joanna said as she rubbed her chin clean. At this, Bill’s eyes widened comically.

 

“Bothering me? Bogus, Princess! Ted isn’t bothering me.” Said Bill.

 

“Hm, is that so? You never hesitate to invite him over, yet today it took you a minute after I suggested we ‘hang out’ to say yes. I counted. On our way home you failed to mention his name but once in conversation. That is in contrast to the hundreds of times you would mention him any other ordinary day. And you have barely spoken to him the entire time you two have been here. The past few days you have said hardly a word about him.” Joanna said, wiping her face with a towel.

 

“Now that’s just nitpicking, Jo. I don’t have to talk about him all the time or speak to him every time I see him. We aren’t, like, attached at the hip or anything.” Bill said.

 

“That is the problem. You _are_ attached at the hip. Figuratively.” Said Joanna. She turned to look at Bill with the towel in her hands, her brows furrowed and a frown upon her face. “Admit it. Your behaviour is irregular. I just want to know why my friends are tense. That is all.”

 

Bill sighed. “If you _have_ to know, the problem isn’t Ted. It’s me. I’m just having a bad time. I mean you can’t expect me to be one hundred percent every day.”

 

“What is wrong, Bill? Maybe I can help you.” Offered Joanna. Bill looked at her thoughtfully. He could tell her everything. He could tell her about what those girls said during lunch. About Ted’s uncovered back causing butterflies in his stomach. It would feel so good to just tell somebody. But could he really tell her?

 

“It’s nothing.” He said with a small smile.

 

The mask came off surprisingly easy, liquid beneath his fingers. The time it took to wash the mask off afforded him a moment to compose himself from the conversation before so that he could face his friends. Joanna had already rejoined Ted and Elizabeth, who washed their faces at the kitchen sink.

 

When Bill joined them on floor in front of the coffee table Elizabeth was painting Ted’s fingernails a dark pink. Like a dragonfruit rind. Joanna leaned forward on the coffee table, arms crossed, and watched them talk with a smile. When she saw Bill her eyes widened and her smile grew in excitement. Bill sat across from her at the coffee table cross legged and sighed.

 

“Alright, Jo. Paint the town red.” Bill said defeatedly.

 

“Actually I was thinking I might paint your nails purple.” Joanna said and reached across the table to grab a pastel lavender. Bill rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless. Anything for the princess babes.

 

Joanna was surprisingly gentle as she arranged his hands and splayed his fingers out, then gently dragged the applicator down each of his nails. She was unsteady and repeatedly had to wipe some off with her own fingernails, but she wasn’t half bad. Elizabeth was another story. She works at a nail salon and consequently Ted’s nail were flawlessly painted.

 

“You know, Bill, I don’t think I mind this nail polish thing.” Ted said with a smile as he painted Elizabeth’s nails metallic orange.

 

“Well don’t get too comfortable. I get the feeling your dad won’t like that a lot.” Bill said before he could stop himself. Ted’s satisfied smile melted into a frown. _Stupid, stupid, stupid. Never mention Captain Logan around Ted unless he’s right there!_ Bill thought with alarm.

 

“Well it’s not like he pays enough attention to what Deacon or I do to notice.” Ted said.

 

“You do live with the guy. I was just saying you should probably shouldn’t this again. I mean it is a little gay.” Bill tried to reason. But Ted just switched from distraught to furious like a flash of lightning.

 

“Who cares if it’s a little gay, dude! My dad thinks _everything_ I do is a little gay!” Ted said angrily. “What is it with you and things being gay, anyways? All the guys at school don’t even say it half as much as you do! That’s why I said we should let the princesses do this. I knew you’d say that!” Ted accused with a pointed finger, the painted nail distractingly pink. Joanna and Elizabeth watched on in horror.

 

“You haven’t talked to me in days.” Ted slumped and said in defeat.

 

“This is not what I had in mind for tonight.” Elizabeth said.

 

“Can you both calm down?” Pleaded Joanna.

 

Bill, unsure how to respond to Ted, nodded. The corners of his eyes stung strangely when he looked over to the princesses.

 

“Uh. Hm. I think I’m gonna go home now.” Bill said quietly and rose to his knees.

 

“Bill, _wait!_ ” He heard Joanna call after him. But he was already out the front door. Bill ran at first down the dark street until he felt they couldn’t have caught up to him and he was tired, with stitches in his side. Inside his body his stomach roiled. The argument kept hitting him again and again in intervals and each time he would be overcome with another wave of humiliation that almost made him curl up on the dirty sidewalk.

 

Bill never fights like that with Ted. He doesn’t run away from conflict. _I should’ve put my foot down. Told them I didn’t think it was a good idea to paint our nails. This never would have happened,_ screamed his brain.

 

For the first time in ages, Bill fell asleep the instant he got under the sheets. He didn’t want to think about it anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so mean haha that’s so sexy of me


	4. Chapter 4

The receiver clicked to indicate that the call had hence begun and the other end of the line crackled with that static silence always present before someone said the first word.

 

“Er, good morning, Bill.” Came a decidedly feminine voice with all the stiffness of someone who had learned greetings like “Hello my name is...” and “How are you today?” from a textbook.

 

“Joanna?” Said the Bill she was looking for, raspy as one is in the morning. Like a clam in it’s shell or a sausage in a bun, Bill was totally encased in a blood orange cage of blanket cascading down his body to put a barrier between his naked self and the watching world. Well, naked save for some soft sunset boxers that were worn out.

 

“Am I calling you at a bad time?” She said in her funny little rolling hills and plains English accent. Bill shook his head and leaned his side against the wall, sticking the yellow phone into the space between his bare shoulder and neck so he could talk hands free and pick at his nails.

 

“No, no, not even a little. But it is a most atypical time to call, y’know. Is everything tight on your end?” Bill asked politely.

 

“Is everything _tight?_ Oh, well, um. You see I called you to say that _I’m sorry._ ”

 

A tad taken back, he frowned and his brows knit. “You’re sorry? For what, Jo?”

 

“I feel like I caused your quarrel with Ted the other day.” Joanna sighed. “It’s been eating away at me all night, the way you ran off.”

 

“Hang on, I think you left me behind a few leaps ago. How did you come to the conclusion that Ted and I fought because of you?” Bill raised one fair eyebrow.

 

“You and I had a talk in the bathroom. If we hadn’t had that talk, you could have been more relaxed.”

 

“I take offence to that, Jo. You know I’m never relaxed, only chill.” Bill smiled.

 

“Oh of _course_ , Bill.” She laughed. The line went dead silent again. Once more the static prevailed.

 

“What were you and Ted fighting about anyways?” Joanna inquired cautiously like she was courting a tiger. Bill did not respond. He could not respond. Only the necessary breaths  to keep him alive would leave his mouth, not words. He stared at the floor unblinkingly.

 

“That’s not important.”

 

The house was empty with Dad gone and Missy at some unspecified event. Bill stared apathetically at the Cheerios and milk dripping off his spoon into the bowl. Out of the window everything was too bright and Bill found himself unable to enjoy the summer sun high in the sky.

 

Bothered and unable to finish his cereal, Bill tossed the bowl in the sink and made his way to his bedroom. He discarded the blanket onto his bed and slipped on a pair of tan cargo shorts and a yellow T-shirt. At the front door was a shoe rack where he slipped a beaten pair of neon green plastic flip flops onto his feet and walked out the door. Outside, the air was hot like sun flares were licking the Earth and oppressively sharing their heat.

 

Bill squinted into the sunlight and pulled a pair of purple sunglasses out of his pocket. When he put them on he wiped his eyes of tears that had formed when he squinted. Then he began to walk down the driveway on to the sidewalk. Beneath his soles the concrete was likely hot enough to fry an egg.

 

Bill had no destination in mind when he set out to walk. Somewhere along the way he started to pass mailboxes and houses he recognised. Soon he realised that while he was lost deep in thought he had walked himself to Ted’s house automatically. It’s excusable. In times of great boredom or stress Bill would come to Ted for the antidote. The only issue is that Ted is the source of his stress.

 

Unwilling to go face to face with Ted at the moment, Bill tried to turn around and walk away. Unfortunately he had walked close enough that someone sitting on a chair on the lawn spotted him. It was Ted and an old Asian woman. Ted waved him over and dread pooled in the bottom of Bill’s lungs and weighed there, heavy.

 

“Hey, dude.” Greeted Bill as cheerfully as he could muster. It came out as halfhearted. “Hey...lady.” He said, attempting to greet the old woman.

 

“This is my grandma.” Ted said with a smile, his hand on her forearm. She turned her head to look at him with one of her faint black eyebrows raised, unimpressed.

 

“I can speak for myself, you know.” Said the woman, looking back at Bill. “It’s nice to meet you. My name is Weici.” She said with a smile.

 

“Oh, huh, hi Ted’s grandma. I’m Bill Preston. Ted and I are, like, best friends.” Bill explained. Realisation dawned upon her face and she looked to Ted.

 

“This is the boy you came home making a big fuss about last night?” She asked, extending a finger towards Bill, whose eyes widened as well as Teds.

 

“I didn’t do that!” Ted hissed.

 

“Yes, you did. I know because you cried into the pan while you were helping me cook.” Weici insisted.

 

“You saw that? Wait- No, that didn’t happen!” Ted said. Bill watched them argue in awe. “My grandma is trying to make me look look stupid, Bill, don’t listen to her!”

 

“Oh you don’t need my help to look stupid, hái zi.” Weici said and Ted pouted. Bill looked between them with a grin, feeling significantly lighter.

 

“Whatever. You wanna come inside?” Ted asked Bill.

 

“Sure.” Bill nodded with his hands in his pockets. Ted stood up from his seat immediately and Bill though that they would begin to head inside, but he quickly noticed that Ted hadn’t followed. Bill turned his head to see Ted a foot behind him, stood beside his grandma patiently as she slowly rose to her feet from the chair. Something inside his chest ached slightly at the sight and he had to look away.

 

Once they were inside the house the air was immediately cooler. Bill grabbed himself a clear plastic cup from inside one of the high up  cabinets in the kitchen. When he turned around he saw that Weici was sitting at the kitchen table reading a book and Ted was walking toward Bill.

 

“I need a cup.” Said Ted, so Bill moved to the side with his cup in his hand and watched Ted.

 

“So how long’s your grandma gonna be here for?” Bill said quietly.

 

“She’s been here a little while now, dude. She’s leaving on Friday next week.” Ted said equally as quiet. He reached into the cupboard and pulled out a cup. “Y’know dude, you would’ve seen her more if you hadn’t been avoiding me.” Ted whispered, looking at Bill’s appalled expression.

 

“Seriously? I wasn’t avoiding you. I’m sorry about yesterday and whatever, but I wasn’t avoiding you.”

 

“I’m a little slow Bill. I’m not, like, brainless. You didn’t go near me outside band practice for three days.”

 

“Maybe I avoided you without thinking about it. But maybe it wasn’t about you, maybe I was upset about something else and I just wanted to be left alone for a while.” Bill frowned.

 

“Left alone for a while? You never need to be “left alone for a while”. You’re Bill. If you’re upset about something you always come to me and we either break something, fix the problem, or do something fun to forget it. Since when do you get upset and ignore a friend for _three days?_ ” Ted whisper hissed and flashed three fingers at Bill which made him frown harder.

 

“Since I started to realise you and I are separate people.” Bill whispered, staring defiantly into Ted’s eyes. “You and Jo _both_ think I should have told you what was wrong. But I think I have a right to keep things to myself. It’s a free country, isn’t it?”

 

“Bill! This isn’t about you being blocked from having privacy or whatever! This is about you acting completely differently than _ever before!_  And you’re being kinda shitty about it!” Ted whisper yelled, jabbing his flattened palms at Bill’s face. As the argument went on and on the desire to leave boiled over like a teapot on a stove. Bill didn’t want this. He didn’t want to argue with Ted again. Not to mention that Ted was making an annoyingly good point.

 

Mouth slightly open, poised to speak, Bill looked over Ted’s shoulder at Weici, still engrossed in her book, then looked back to Ted.

 

“I didn’t come here to pick a fight with you.” Bill whispered firmly up at Ted. From his taller stature, Ted glowered down at Bill. But it was clear that he wasn’t going to argue anymore. Bill took the opportunity to approach the dinner table and sit across from Weici with his cup of water.

 

Eyes firmly kept on the cover of the old woman’s book, Bill ignored Ted when he walked away. The instant Ted was gone, Weici lowered her book to the table and flattened her palms out on the open pages. She looked over her shoulder as if to be entirely Ted had disappeared. Then she turned her bright black eyes on Bill.

 

“You’re like a blonde hurricane, child! I’ve never seen anyone ruffle my grandson’s feathers like that before!” She grinned humorously. Bill laughed nervously, slightly ashamed of himself. The way one would feel after realising they just fought their best friend in front of their best friend’s grandmother who barely visits them.

 

“Yeah, well, I don’t make a habit out of it.” Bill said, averting his eyes and choosing instead to look at the kitchen. “Seriously. We never fight.” He said weakly.

 

“I’m not mad. Just curious. Humour a nosy old woman; what did you two fight about?” Weici said with her chin resting on her palm and a small smile upon her face. Bill silently tossed the words around in his head. Tell her about being a bad friend to her son? Tell her about them painting their nails and risk doing more damage in unfathomable ways, each more entangled in bad outcomes?

 

He barely knows her. And yet, she seems...different somehow. Unlike Captain Logan there is Ted somewhere in her eyes and in her smile. Trust unfurls in Bill’s heart like a hand reaching out for purchase in another hand.

 

“I ignored Ted for three days cause I was upset. Not with him! But I made him _think_ I was upset with him. We went to a friend’s house yesterday and had a fight.” Explained Bill. Weici listened intently, no anger or displeasure upon her face, which was certainly heartening for Bill, already a bit stretched thin emotionally.

 

“Ah, young friendship.” Weici finally said. “You stumble, you get lost, you try your hardest. But ultimately the best ones are anything but selfish in nature.” Smiled the old woman. “I don’t think you meant to hurt my grandson.”

 

“No.” Bill smiled for the first time in a little while.

 

“But you hurt him.”

 

“Yes.” His smile fell.

 

“So.”

 

“So?”

 

“Apologise.” She said, leaning back in her seat. Bill silently eyed her from across the table, taken back. She returned the stare, packing force and judgement into her brown irises and her raised eyebrow of faint black hairs. “You want him back on your side, don’t you? Go find him and tell him you’re a big idiot that’s terribly sorry.” She said in a tone like _duh_. Duh indeed, old lady.

 

“Go on! He’s probably still in the house so do it now!” Weici said, both eyebrows raised, waving a hand over her shoulder as if to shoo him away. Light a newborn deer Bill scrambled out of his seat and speed walked past her. All the while she laughed to herself. This he could hear behind him as he left the room.

 

Deacon was in his own bedroom and didn’t know where Ted could be. Captain Logan dismissed Bill rudely, telling him “I don’t know what my hooligan son does on his own and I don’t care. Now go home or I’ll call your parents”. Which Bill did not take to heart since he doesn’t respect anything that comes out of Captain Logan’s mouth.

 

In the back garden was where Bill found Ted surrounded by pink roses around his head like a wreath. His dark brown hair did that fantastic thing where the soft locks fell forward the way a curtain does. He sat on a brick partition between the grass a level below and the soil a level above where that rose bush sat as contentedly as Ted and as beautiful as him too. In his lap was a small book.

 

Captain Logan is a man of pride, not botanical talents, so that bush of roses is one of the only proper flowers in the back garden. Heaven knows Ted is probably the one that tends to it, not his father. Bill approached Ted slowly, but the crunching grass under his feet alerted Ted to his presence. Curse a well cut lawn. Startled, Ted’s gaze shot up from the book, which he chucked to the side with one hand and it went sailing through the air far away. He looked unto Bill like a deer in headlights.

 

“Mind if I...?” Said Bill, gesturing beside Ted. With a quick look at the space referred to Ted nodded and Bill eagerly sat himself down. The pair were silent for a few good tense seconds. Their eyes never met. All of a sudden Ted acquired some sense and kicked the conversation into gear himself.

 

“Do you like my grandma?” He asked, looking out at the expanse of the lawn.

 

“Uh, yeah. She’s cool.” Bill idly replied. “Weird. But cool.”

 

They fell back into the trap of silence once more. And suddenly, as if magnets were in their heads, they looked to one another and spoke at the same time;

 

“I’m sorry about fighting with you earlier.” Said Ted. “I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry.” Blurted Bill.

 

“No wait, let me apologise first.” “I need to apologise first.”

 

“Seriously let me say I’m sorry.” “You have nothing to be sorry for dude, I do.”

 

“Can you just let me speak.” “Stop talking.”

 

They both sighed.

 

“Before you try and say anything, you don’t gotta apologise to me when I started the whole problem by ignoring you for three days. And now I’m ending it by saying that I’m really sorry for doing that to you. I never meant to hurt you, but I did.”

 

“Yeah, you were being kinda bogus.” Ted said and Bill frowned, nervous.

 

“But I can forgive that.”

 

The tension left his shoulders and Bill softly smiled at Ted. Ted returned the smile in a sly way. For a moment, Bill looked just beside Ted’s head at the house. Something in the kitchen window caught his eye. Peering out into the yard was the face of Weici, smiling at them. When Ted realised that Bill was no longer smiling but instead looking at the window, he frowned.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

This broke the trance. “Nothing.” Bill assured him, a strange heat in his cheeks. How long had she been watching? Who knows. Ted hummed, unbothered. They let the sun fall on them as they laughed and talked like nothing had ever been wrong the day before.


End file.
